Paul
Paul is one of the main characters in the movie Cabin Fever. He is one of the only 2 characters from the original movie to also appear in Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever (the other being Deputy Winston). In both movies, Paul was played by Rider Strong. Background Little is revealed about Paul's background. Although Paul states that he has known Karen since the beginning of high school and it's implied that he's harbored a secret crush on her for most, if not all of this time. When Paul was a kid, there was a massacre at the bowling alley his family used to frequent by a disgruntled staff member. Paul didn't witness it firsthand, however, and seems to remember it only through details so bizarre and gruesome, they were likely more urban legends about the crime passed around his town rather then actual facts. Cabin Fever Paul travels off into the rural woods for a fall break vacation with his friends, Bert, Karen, Marcy and Jeff in Jeff's pickup truck. Before reaching their final destination (The Cabin), the group stops at a small general store for beer and food. A young boy (Dennis) is sitting quietly in a chair in front of the store. Paul sits down beside the boy and tries to make friends with him but the boy suddenly grabs Paul's hand and bites it, drawing blood. The boy's father, who works in the store, comes out and yells at Paul for sitting next to his son because all the locals know they're not supposed to sit next to him. The father directs Paul to a stream behind the store where he can clean his wound. After the group has finished buying their supplies they continue on to the cabin. After unpacking, Paul and Karen walk to the nearby lake to swim and sunbathe. Along the way, they meet Bert, who is armed with a rifle, and express disgust at his plans to spend the afternoon shooting squirrels "because they're gay." While having a meaningful conversation upon a raft on the lake, Paul and Karen kiss for the first time. Though Paul is left wondering whether the kiss had any special meaning for Karen as it did for him. Later, as the group are gathered around a campfire, Paul reluctantly relates the story of a bloody massacre that occurred in a bowling alley in his home county when he was a kid. Shortly afterwards, he, along with the others, meets Grim and his aggressive dog, Dr. Mambo. Grim offers to share his bag of weed with the group. But after he leaves to get it, he never returns. Paul was in the cabin with his friends when Henry the diseased hermit came to the door asking for help. He helped the others fight him off when he tried to steal Jeff's truck. In fact, it was Paul who accidentally set the hermit on fire, while trying to fend him off with a burning stick. The following morning, while Bert & Jeff decide to walk into town (because the truck was wrecked) and Marcy went in search of a house with a phone on the far side of the lake, Paul stayed with Karen to keep her company, as she seemed to be the most upset of the group about what they'd done to the hermit. He offers her a glass of water, not knowing the hermit's dead body has fallen into the nearby reservoir, infecting the cabin's drinking water. In doing so, Paul unknowingly causes Karen to get the disease. Paul meets Deputy Winston when he comes to the cabin to check out reports of the hermit's attack. Paul indulges Winston's rambling about partying and thanks Winston when he promises that he will send a tow truck out to recover the damaged truck. But Paul later tells the group that he didn't get the impression that Winston was reliable. When the rest of the group returns to the cabin they discuss what they should do next. Paul asserts that they should tell the police about burning the hermit (in self-defense) once they leave the cabin. Paul assists Bert while he tries to repair the truck. Dr. Mambo (Grim's dog) comes out of the woods alone and begins growling menacingly at them. With nowhere to run, Paul picks up a rock, to throw at the dog if it decides to attack. However, Marcy scares the dog off by firing a rifle shot into the air. That evening, Paul goes in to Karen's bedroom to check on her. She wakes up and asks him to stay with her for a while. After she falls asleep again, Paul caresses her face and body before eventually moving on to her vagina. The movie attempts to present this scene in a romantic light but it is inarguably a rape scene. To his horror he discovers that a huge wound has developed on Karen's inner thigh. He freaks out, waking up Karen who didn't realize she was sick (nor does she know she has been sexually assaulted). Following the discovery of Karen's illness, Paul joins with the group in sending Karen out to the toolshed, so she won't infect them. With Karen sick and dying, the need to get help becomes much more urgent and Paul decides to set out that night to find a phone or some other way to alert the authorities to their plight. He comes upon a house and while peering through the window, he is momentarily distracted by the site of a naked woman laying on a bed inside. Unfortunately, this proved to be a costly mistake as the woman's husband mistook Paul for a peeping tom and chased him off before he could ask to use the couple's phone. Paul was so intimidated that he gave up his search and headed straight back to the cabin. As the group prepare to have dinner, a fight breaks out between them and Paul quickly restores the peace and reminds the group that they need to stick together in order to survive. That night, Paul shares a bed (fully clothed) with Marcy, as a rift has opened between her and Jeff under all the stress they are going through. The next morning, after Bert manages to get the truck working, Paul carries Karen to the truck with Marcy's help. An argument ensues when Karen vomits blood all inside the truck and Bert (who unknown to everyone else has begun to develop bleeding sores) drives off alone. Paul urges Marcy to leave Jeff alone when he tries to flee on foot but she doesn't listen to him and tries unsuccessfully to shame Jeff into staying. Paul and Marcy clean Karen up the best they can, but because they can do nothing else for her, they lock her up in the shed again. Some time later, Paul finds Marcy sitting on her bed, depressed about Karen and their whole situation. Paul attempts to reassure her but their conversation takes a surprising turn when Marcy suggests they have sex, as she doesn't believe either of them will survive the outbreak. At first Paul seems shocked by this, but somehow Marcy manages to persuade him. They both undress and get into bed together. As they have sex, Paul is surprised and expresses his concern that they aren't using a condom, but Marcy tells him it's okay because she's healthy. Despite his initial reluctance, Paul succumbs to Marcy's wiles and ends up participating in the sexual encounter so passionately that he leaves sore marks on her back as his finishes in her as they orgasm . Afterwards, they laid in bed together for a time with Paul cuddling Marcy. Paul clearly doesn't trust Marcy's claim of being healthy, as he sneaks into the bathroom and pours a bottle of listerine onto his penis, in an attempt to kill any disease Marcy might have that it would've been exposed to. Unknown to Paul, Marcy does indeed have the flesh eating disease and has passed it to him. It soon becomes apparent that Paul immediately regrets sleeping with Marcy. Marcy scolds Paul for being too rough during sex, though it is possible that she also had intentions of seducing him a second time. Paul coldly tells her that he is going out to look for Jeff so that the three of them can leave together and walk back to town. When Marcy argues with him, he doesn't listen and it's clear that looking for Jeff is just an excuse he is using to get away from her. In fact, he doesn't even follow Jeff's path, but walks off in the opposite direction. Paul finds the burned corpse of the hermit floating in the reservoir, though at first he is unsure if it is actually a human body. As he goes down a ladder to get a better look, the ladder breaks and Paul plunges in to the diseased water supply, much to his horror. Now, he finally realizes that the group's exposure to the disease didn't come directly from the hermit himself or the truck, but from the cabin's tainted drinking water. Paul is drawn back to the cabin by Marcy's screams and arrives only to discover bits and pieces of her mangled corpse all around the forest in front of the cabin. When he goes to check on Karen, he discovers that Dr.Mambo (who is obviously what killed Marcy) is in the shed and eating Karen alive. Dr. Mambo turns and tries to attack Paul but Paul is able to scramble to Bert's rifle (which Paul took with him for self-defense) and kill the mad dog. Discovering Karen to be horrendously disfigured, but also still alive, Paul decides to euthanize her by bludgeoning her to death with a shovel. As Paul prepares to make the journey back to town on foot alone, he encounters a gravely ill Bert on the front stoop of the cabin. As he helps Bert inside, Bert reveals that the man who works at the general store and his friends are trying to kill him so that he can't spread the disease. They conclude that Paul will also probably be targeted as he's been exposed to the disease too. Together they hatch a plan to beat the hunters. Knowing that he's close to death anyway, Bert sacrifices himself distracting them so that Paul to ambush and kill them in a surprise attack. Before he leaves the cabin, Paul thanks Bert's decapitated corpse for his sacrifice. Paul then ventures out into the woods again. During his journey he stumbles upon a cave and inside he discovers why Grim never returned to the cabin that first night: Grim, like Marcy had been killed and ripped to pieces by his own dog. Paul eventually discovers Jeff's pickup truck deep in the woods, but the hunters' pickup truck is also nearby and in far better condition, so Paul steals it instead. As he drives through the countryside looking for help, he crashes into a deer. The deer gets lodged in the pickup's windshield, almost injuring Paul with the frantic flailing of it's legs and Paul is force to shoot it. Almost immediately afterwards, the truck runs out of gas. Traumatized, sick and possibly injured from the crash, Paul staggers into a nearby camp full of teenagers who are partying with Deputy Winston. Paul, who is covered in the blood of the deer, panics the campers. He confronts Winston about how he never sent the promised tow truck to the cabin and Winston apologizes. At that moment, the sheriff comes through on Winston's radio, issuing an order to shoot any of the kids from the cabin he encounters on sight, as the sheriff has discovered the bodies of the hunters that Paul had previously killed, not realizing it was a case of self-defense. This panics the campers even more and a fight breaks out resulting in some being injured, probably fatally. Frustrated and concerned that Winston may actually carry out his orders, Paul knocks him out with a piece of wood. He then staggers out into the woods again, eventually emerging on a highway. He tries to flag down the passing cars, but none will stop. Eventually, he collapses from exhaustion and a large truck barely avoids running him down. The truck driver dumps him at the entrance of the nearest hospital. Paul awakes in his hospital bed to discover that he, too, now bears the marks of the disease on his belly. He is interrogated by the sheriff, but he's too delirious to give the sheriff any helpful information about the disease. The doctors at the small county hospital feel overwhelmed by Paul's condition and decide to transfer him to a better hospital. The sheriff puts Winston, who has recovered from his head wound, in charge of the transfer. In the back of Winston's squad car, Paul mutters, "water," presumably trying to communicate that the disease is in the reservoir. However, Winston misunderstands and believes that Paul is in fact asking for a drink of water. For reasons that aren't completely made clear, Winston decides to dump Paul by the side of a nearby river. As a result, Paul contaminates the river, which just happens to be the source of the "Down Home Water" company's product, thus initiating the events of the sequel, Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever. Cabin Fever 2 Paul reappears very briefly in this movie. Apparently, he regains enough strength to be able to walk again, though his appearance has deteriorated severely from the disease. He staggers through the woods for a while before staggering out onto a highway where he is fatally struck and brutally exploded by the school bus. Category:Males Category:Victims Of The Disease